1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus and method for lighting wearable items, such as jackets and other clothing items and bags that are carried or worn by use of a strap or belt, or multiple straps or belts, such as a purse, or a backpack worn on one's back with the use of a shoulder strap or multiplicity of shoulder straps, or a fanny pack worn around one's waist with the use of a belt, and in particular to clothing and a bag such as that described above that includes a flexible electroluminescent light filament component with a greatly increased electrical capacity, a substantially increased brightness and a greater flexibility.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
The prior art is exemplified by many examples of clothing items, backpacks, fanny packs, and other “carryable” luggage articles that include some type of lighting source, and are well-known and in widespread use.
While lighted clothing and backpacks have been proposed, using incandescent light sources, light emitting diodes (LEDs) and electro-luminescent (EL) light strips and panels, there are found many disadvantages inherent in those applications. The disadvantages of those include excessive weight, size and power consumption of the incandescent light sources, narrow viewing angle of the light and insufficient visibility of the light of the LEDs, and reduced electrical capacity of the light source, reduced brightness, fragility and reduced flexibility, and optical discontinuity in the EL layer, causing further substantial light losses of the EL strips and panels. The known prior art, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,671, limits the lighting source to the electro-luminescent light strip in the form of a multi-element light panel of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,817. The disadvantages of a luminescent light strip include reduced flexibility, that is, the light strip is more fragile and will not withstand multiple flexing or bending, which would occur quite frequently when placed on a jacket or other item of clothing or on a child's backpack, and optical discontinuity in the EL layer, causing further, substantial light losses.
A further disadvantage of the prior art relates to the failure to have a time-out switch, thus allowing the light source to automatically turn itself off, thereby preserving the life of the light source and power source.